15th International AIDS Conference Bangkok, Thailand — July 11-July 16, 2004

Int Conf AIDS. 2004 Jul 11-16;15:Abstract No. LbOrD28

B N Ngwenya
Okavango research Center, University of Botswana, Maun, Botswana

The increase of HIV/AIDS related death in Botswana has resulted in 37 850 orphans displaced from begetting parents. This paper reports on a comparative national study of orphan kin care-givers (OKCGs) in 10 administrative districts (3 in urban and 7 in rural). OKCG constitutes full time parenting of an orphan by an adult with a kinship bond with the child. A stratified three stage sample design was utilized to sample 10% of eligible OCGs from District orphan registers. A total of 587 OKCGs providing care to 1, 229 orphans (52.3% female and 47.6% male) were surveyed.
The main objective of this paper is to a) present a general profile of OKCGs in Botswana, b) report on specific issues that impact on OKCGs and, c) make policy recommendations. Overall, about 90% of orphans in Botswana have been absorbed by pre-existing kinship based custodial system of care giving. Orphan care-giving (OKCG)is significantly biased towards de facto single women (70%) who are more likely to be aged 50+ years (57.4%), either have no formal education (35.8%) or have attained primary education (40%), with limited disposable income (24.6% formal employment), likely to experience inadequate formal (only 34% from social workers) and informal (about 10.2% from chiefs) support services, disengage from civic life (only 38.0 %), report poor health (25.5%) and having "too many responsibilities" (33.1%).

Despite the challenges, school retention is high, 73.8% indicated that school going children in their care have not missed school, 22.2% missed school for less than a week. Aproximately 90% of the children are in school and 6.8% are not. Government provide support to OKCGs with a food basket (96.4%). But material intervention disempower OKCGs economically and isolate them socially. 80.1% OKCG recommended parenting workshops and support groups be organized for them, 25.3% wanted user friendly manuals prepared in the local languages on orphan parenting issues, 46.3% recommend access adult education to improve functional literacy competency and 35% access to employment opportunities.

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LbOrD28

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